blue screens. should i reformat?

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c0smic

My computer is 2 years old and has been working very well. About 2 months
ago it started to spontaneously re-boot. I did some research and unchecked
automatically restart in system properties. Then I started getting the blue
screens.

Usually the screen says “IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” “STOP: 0x0000000A
(0xE0C37E040,0x00000001,0x00000000,0x804FD9BD)

And sometimes “PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA” “STOP: 0x000000050
(oxE8C13980,0x00000000,0x804FD9BD,0x00000002)

I did a lot of searching on the web and often bad memory was suggested as a
reason. So I dwnloaded and ran memtest86. I ran it several times overnight
and always got zero errors. So it would appear that the memory is OK.

I use Drive Image to back-up every month. So I restored an image from
several months ago before I saw the blue screens. I checked the windows
\minidump folder to be sure there were no blue screens at the time the
image was made. And the result was the blue screens continued.

So if I restored an image from before the blue screens started and the blue
screens did not go away does this point to a hardware problem? And if so
where should I look? The blue screens do not happen often, somewhere
between 4 minutes and 4 days.

I have checked all the fans and they work fine. The CPU runs cool. I blew
out all the dust with a can of air.

My hardware: MSI 850 Pro5 mainboard, 2.4 Pentium IV, 1 GB memory
 
c0smic said:
My computer is 2 years old and has been working very well. About 2 months
ago it started to spontaneously re-boot. I did some research and unchecked
automatically restart in system properties. Then I started getting the blue
screens.
< snip >

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Reseat all the modules, including the memory modules, and cables
inside your computer.

2. Monitor your power supply voltages for a while -- check for
fluctuations and voltages out of spec.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
What software/hardware/drivers did you last install before you started
getting these errors?
 
Bob said:
< snip >

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Reseat all the modules, including the memory modules, and cables
inside your computer.

2. Monitor your power supply voltages for a while -- check for
fluctuations and voltages out of spec.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
I will try to reseat all the modules as you suggested.

How do I monitor my power supply?
 
Yves said:
What software/hardware/drivers did you last install before you started
getting these errors?
I have not installed any new hardware for well over a year. I have
installed some new drivers from Windows Update.

I suspected an Invidia driver for the video card. I uninstalled the device
and I had to re-activate Windows XP upon reboot. The generic driver doesn’t
support the video out to my TV so I reinstalled the driver from Windows
Update.

I uninstalled most hardware from the device manager and let it redetect and
install drivers. A friend suggested this.
 
Dont use winupdate for drivers, use hardware manu.site only.
There has been a documented problem on Nvidia drivers,amongst others, from
Winupdate
 
DL said:
Dont use winupdate for drivers, use hardware manu.site only.
There has been a documented problem on Nvidia drivers,amongst others,
from Winupdate
I will uninstall the driver and see what happens.
 
c0smic said:
My computer is 2 years old and has been working very well. About 2 months
ago it started to spontaneously re-boot. I did some research and unchecked
automatically restart in system properties. Then I started getting the blue
screens.

Usually the screen says "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" "STOP: 0x0000000A
(0xE0C37E040,0x00000001,0x00000000,0x804FD9BD)

And sometimes "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" "STOP: 0x000000050
(oxE8C13980,0x00000000,0x804FD9BD,0x00000002)

I did a lot of searching on the web and often bad memory was suggested as a
reason. So I dwnloaded and ran memtest86. I ran it several times overnight
and always got zero errors. So it would appear that the memory is OK.

I see from the info below that you have 1GB of memory this means it can take
a lot longer then overnight for a memory error to register - your blue
screens happen between 4 minutes and 4 days after all.

I would definetely test the sticks in the system individually as I strongly
suspect one of them is mal-functioning.
 
Nick said:
I see from the info below that you have 1GB of memory this means it
can take a lot longer then overnight for a memory error to register -
your blue screens happen between 4 minutes and 4 days after all.

I would definetely test the sticks in the system individually as I
strongly suspect one of them is mal-functioning.
Thank you! I will try all suggestions and hopefully that will solve the
problem. Bad memory is easy to fix and that’s what I hope it is. Too bad
all the info on the blue screen doesn’t provide much help.
 
You might consider going into the BIOS and making sure that resetting your
IRQ settings back to AUTO. Consult your MB documentation for a HOWTO.

Good Luck,

John H. Wright, MCP
 
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